• by Todd Wasserman , January 21, 2022

The Unit9 Group is launching a new division addressing the Metaverse and providing what it calls an end-to-end service and a “maker’s perspective” to ensure creative executions. 

The so-called “Metaverse Advisory Dept.” (M.A.D.) is designed to help clients develop robust and long-term Metaverse strategies. Launch clients include Havas Media Group, Opera and COPA90.

M.A.D. has already launched a virtual concert for battle royale game Garena Free Fire, a STEM-themed Minecraft experience  for the Ad Council, an immersive virtual world replete with a motion-captured digital avatar of DJ Diplo for Intel and a hybrid Metaverse experience with one of Europe’s top-tier football leagues and a world-renowned theme park.

“With such intense hype around the Metaverse, there is – understandably – much skepticism,” said UNIT9’s EMEA MD, Rosh Singh.  “But we’re undergoing the next evolution of the internet. Web 3.0 – or the Metaverse – is so much more than gaming and NFTs. It’s a radical change in the way humans and information interact, signaling an era akin to the earliest days of the smartphone.”

The Unit9 group is far from the only ad agency to position itself as a Metaverse expert. Others include VaynerMedia, which recently advertised for an NFT Resident, Mediahub, which last month opened an office in the Metaverse and Publicis, which worked with Samsung on a Decentraland experience.

M.A.D will be led by Garry Williams and Executive Strategy Director, Annie Bedard. Williams and Bedard’s mission is to help develop clients’ Metaverse aspirations at an early stage to ensure they align within internal objectives, alongside executional ambitions and limitations. M.A.D. will be headquartered in London.